Breakdown of Diese Befugnisse werden selten übergeben.
dieser
this / that (fem.: diese, neut.: dieses)
selten
rarely / rare
werden
to be (passive auxiliary + past participle)
übergeben
to hand over
die Befugnis
the authority (authorization, power to act)
Questions & Answers about Diese Befugnisse werden selten übergeben.
Why is the plural of Befugnis spelled with a double 's' in Befugnisse?
Nouns ending in the suffix -nis always double the 's' in the plural, adding -se to become -nisse. This spelling rule ensures that the 'i' before the 's' remains pronounced as a short vowel. You will see this exact same pattern in other common nouns like Ergebnisse (results) or Geheimnisse (secrets).
Most abstract nouns ending in -nis are neuter. Is Befugnis neuter too?
No, Befugnis is one of the important exceptions and is feminine (die Befugnis). While most -nis nouns are indeed neuter (like das Ergebnis), a handful of common ones are feminine. Other feminine examples include die Erlaubnis (permission) and die Kenntnis (knowledge). Regardless of whether they are neuter or feminine, they all form their plural with -nisse.
Why doesn't the past participle übergeben have a -ge- added to it, like übergegeben?
In the meaning of handing over authority or an object, übergeben is an inseparable verb. Because the stress falls on the root verb (überGEben) rather than the prefix, it does not take the -ge- marker in the past participle. Therefore, the infinitive and the past participle look exactly the same here.
Why does the sentence use werden instead of sind to mean "are"?
This is the standard German process passive (Vorgangspassiv), which uses werden plus the past participle to describe an action happening to the subject. If you used sind, it would form the state passive (Zustandspassiv), which describes the completed state after an action has finished. Here, we are talking about the general process or rule of handing the powers over, not the resulting state of them already being in someone else's hands.
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